Taemin had been sick for three days now, but finally, today, his fever had gone down. Jongin had to go to work, he'd left Taemin in bed with instruction to stay there, given that he was still recovering. Jongin showed up to work slightly later than usual, but it's not like it mattered, since no one was there yet anyway. Jongin rolled his eyes at his coworkers, mildly annoyed at the fact that they were always later than him. He started to prepare for opening, knowing they'd show up eventually. And he was right, about five minutes prior to opening time, they barged in the door, quieter than usual. Today only Baekhyun and Zitao came in, as it was Jongdae's day off, so it made sense that they weren't as noisy, given Jongdae was the loudest and most irritating out of all the employees. 

The morning progressed as usual, until around eleven, when something alarming happened. Out of absolutely nowhere, there seemed to be an explosion. Baekhyun froze at the counter. Customers looked among each other fearfully. Jongin and Zitao locked eyes in surprise and fear. Zitao's eyes flashed in understanding. 

"The generator!" He shouted, racing to the staff room. Baekhyun and Jongin watched him go. He came back not even a few seconds later, as flames up the wall separating the staff room from the rest of the shop.

"Get out!" He shouted. "Fire!" 

Everyone in the shop remained frozen, taking a minute to comprehend what Zitao had said, before breaking into a panic. Thankfully, there weren't many customers in the store to begin with, but the sudden rush to the door caused leaving the store to take much longer than necessary, especially given that there was only one door to exit from. Jongin lingered at the back with Baekhyun, waiting for the customers to exit, unlike Zitao, who had joined the crowd like the bad employee he was. The customers crowded the doorway, all trying to push out at once. Baekhyun was shouting for people to leave in an orderly fashion, but his voice couldn't be heard over the noise of the panicked people. The flames grew closer. A little girl tripped and fell, and Jongin rushed forward to help her up. The room had been rapidly heating up, and Jongin found himself sweating now. Thick black smoke poured from the back, and he choked on it, despite doing his best not to breathe it in. Eventually, most of the customers were out, or so it seemed. He couldn't see well through the smoke, so he just had to hope. The heat was becoming unbearable, and the air nearly burnt his skin. The flames had spread to the front now, and as Jongin made his way through the thick smoke and heavy, hot air, he felt a searing pain rip through his right arm. He didn't need to look to know what it was. Panicking, he dropped to the ground, rolling in an attempt to get the flames off of his arm. He was lucky, and it worked. Jumping up, he raced out of the shop, eager to escape the flaming, smoking building. He was coughing rather violently from the smoke, but he was alive and safe.

There was already a fire truck on the scene, and firefighters were hurriedly unloading equipment from it. Quite fortunately for Jongin's burnt arm, there were a few ambulances in the parking lot, and paramedics were starting to attend to the people coming from the shop. His arm hurt so badly, all he could think of was finding a way to relieve the pain. He didn't even dare to look at it, for fear of what he might see. But for a moment, he just stood there, dazed, as the cold wind blew around him, wishing he could have grabbed his coat before he left the building. Paramedics approached him, guiding him back to an ambulance. Despite Jongin's claims that he was fine, they made him wear an oxygen mask while they treated his burn. Whatever it was they put on his arm stung, and he had to bite his lip to keep from crying out. They wrapped his arm in a bandage, and told him that at some point he should go to the hospital to get a proper examination of it. After getting his arm treated, Jongin didn't have anything to do, so once they let him take off the oxygen mask, he wandered about the people accumulating in the shopping center parking lot, watching the flames consume the coffee shop and other stores surrounding it.

Suddenly, he remembered Taemin. That boy was definitely the type to get worked up about something like this, Jongin should let him know everyone was alright. With his good arm, he reached for his phone, which was in his back pocket. It had quite miraculously survived his sudden rolling before, which he was grateful for, but to his dismay, it was dead when he tried to turn it on. Maybe he'd find a way to charge it later, but for now, he could only hope that Taemin wouldn't stress himself out too much, as he was sure the fire would be all over the news by the time Taemin actually woke up. 

Jongin just stayed as he was for a while, watching the fire with a vague sense of horror. It still hadn't completely set in that this was his workplace that was currently going up in flames. Eventually, he realized that he had absolutely no clue what time it was, or where his coworkers were. He wandered the parking lot for a while, walking amongst all of the police, the firemen, the paramedics, and bystanders, trying to find Zitao or Baekhyun. He never ended up finding Zitao, but he did catch a glimpse of Baekhyun talking to a paramedic, so at least he knew that one of them was fine. He could only hope that Zitao was okay, knowing that his chances of finding him in this crowd were slim. Jongin sighed, turning back to face the burning structure, unable to do anything more than watch the commotion ensuing around him. 

*****

He stayed until they'd gotten the fire under control, and by then, even though the fire hadn't been extinguished, all he wanted to do was go home. Honestly, he didn't know why he hadn't gone home sooner. The walk back was quiet, the cold wind snatching at his thin shirt. Jongin simply put up with it, knowing he'd be home soon. When he got there, the warmth of the stairwell seemed heavenly to him, and he wished he could stay in there for a while, knowing just how cold the complex hallways were. But his apartment wasn't far from the stairwell, so at least he wouldn't be cold for very long. He hurried through the short walk, wanting nothing more than the lovely warmth of his heated apartment. 

Jongin stopped short in front of his apartment in surprise. Taemin was slumped on the ground in front of the door, eyes closed. He was shivering, curled up as if trying to warm himself. Alarm shot through Jongin. Taemin shouldn't be out here, what was he doing? Jongin knelt next to him, feeling his forehead. Taemin was burning up. He stirred, and Jongin, seeing that the boy was awake, spoke up. 

"Taemin, I told you to stay in bed. Why were you out?" 

Taemin mumbled something incoherent. 

"What?" 

"You..."  Taemin whispered. 

"I don't know what you're trying to say, but let's get you inside. Your fever's back." Jongin wrapped his arms around Taemin, lifting him from the ground as he stood up. He was surprisingly light, Jongin noted, having absolutely no trouble lifting him. It hurt his arm, but he ignored the pain, more concerned about Taemin than himself. 

"L-let me down," Taemin protested, struggling weakly. "I'm fine." 

Jongin put him down. Taemin rocked forward, reaching out and grabbing Jongin for support. Jongin grit his teeth as pain shot through his arm once again, Taemin had grabbed onto the spot of his burn. 

"Are you sure about that?" He asked. Taemin looked up before quickly letting go, rocking unsteadily on his feet once again. Jongin reached out, steadying him. 

"I'm-I'm sorry..." 

"It's fine." Jongin shook his head in dismissal. He wrapped his bandaged arm around Taemin's waist, in order to free his other arm while still supporting Taemin. Jongin winced, pain shooting up arm, but didn't say anything as he reached around Taemin to unlock the door. There was nothing he could do about the fact that his arm was burned, he'd just have to accept that doing certain things with it hurt. 

"I can't believe you." Taemin's voice was suddenly angry. Jongin looked down at him in confusion. 

"You were in that stupid fire, weren't you? I called you and texted you so many times, and you never even answered. Do you know how worried I was? I went to the shop and then walked all the way to the hospital, just to try to find you. And your stupid just shows up here, who knows how long after I've passed out from exhaustion, completely fine. I hate you." Taemin slumped against Jongin, crying now.  

Jongin just stood there wordlessly, holding Taemin up. Taemin was hitting his chest, but they were weak blows, he barely even felt them. He'd thought Taemin might get worked up about the whole deal with the fire, but he never expected Taemin to actually go out and try to find him. He shook his head, unsure of what to do.  

"I hate you so much, why didn't you answer me?" Taemin's voice broke.

Jongin let go of the key, leaving it in the lock. He began to rub Taemin's back in what he could only hope was a soothing way. Guilt swirled in his stomach. This was all his fault, if only he'd found some way to contact Taemin, the boy would still be in bed, recovering like he should be. 

"I'm sorry. It's honestly such a stupid reason, but my phone is dead. I haven't been able to charge it all day. I should have found some other way to communicate though, this is my fault. If it weren't for me, you wouldn't be out here right now, I really am sorry. Please don't be mad, I'm okay. I got burned, but it's not that bad. I was lucky." He said, hoping the other would stop crying soon. He didn't want to see Taemin in such an awful state, especially over him. 

Taemin sniffled.

"I was so scared..." 

Jongin held Taemin closer, pressing his lips to the top of Taemin's head. 

"I know, I'm sorry," Jongin murmured. "We really do need to go inside now though, okay? You need to rest."

Taemin nodded, letting Jongin open the door and guide him inside. Jongin walked him to the bedroom, helping him into bed. Worried about Taemin's fever, Jongin tried to take the boy's temperature, but he wasn't having it.

"It's fine," Taemin grumbled, pushing Jongin's hands away. "Let me sleep." 

Jongin sighed. 

"Okay, you do that. I'm going to go shower. Sleep well." Jongin walked out into the living room, plugging his phone in to charge. He grabbed clean clothes and headed for his bathroom, unsure of how he'd shower with the bandage on his arm, but confident that he'd find a way. He closed the door to the bathroom, and before he even turned the shower on, he was lost in his thoughts, reflecting on everything that had taken place earlier that day. 

*****

When Jongin came out of the shower a half hour later, his phone was on again. He checked it, amazed at the amount of calls and texts he'd receieved. Obviously, there were the many from Taemin, but there were calls from Sehun and even Jongdae. The fact that Jongdae had called surprised him the most, and so after texting Sehun that he was fine, he called Jongdae back, curious to see what his coworker would say. 

The phone picked up on the first ring. 

"Jongin!" Jongdae's voice was loud, even over the phone. 

"Yeah, you called?" 

"Yeah. Are you alright? That fire was huge." 

"I'm fine. Have you heard from anyone else?" 

"Zitao texted me about an hour ago. He said he's with Baekhyun. They're both fine, too."

"Good, that's good..." Jongin wasn't sure what else to say. 

"Hey, is Taemin with you? He was out there searching for you, I ran into him and told him to go home, but I have no idea if he actually did."

"Yeah, he came home. He's made himself even more sick now, but hopefully he'll be alright in a few days."

"Thank goodness. Kid really looked like crap. I was worried that he didn't go home and was out wandering the streets looking for you." 

"Nope, he's here."

"He was really worried about you, you know-"

"-I know," Jongin cut Jongdae off, not sure if he wanted to know where the irritating man was trying to take the conversation. "Anyway, I'm tired, so I'm gonna go now. Goodbye, Jongdae." 

"Bye." Jongdae hung up on him, the call ended. Jongin lay down on his couch, staring up at the ceiling. He knew that Taemin was really worried about him, and just the thought of the boy being concerned for him made his face heat up. It wasn't entirely a good thing though, given that Taemin had dragged himself around outside for much too long just because he was worried about Jongin. It was so stupid of Taemin to do that, he was in no condition to be out, and he knew it. There was no way Jongin would ever let something like that happen again. 

The day had been long and exhausting, and while Jongin resisted sleep, he gave in eventually, exhausted. He closed his eyes, glad that despite everything, the day had turned out alright; he was safe, his coworkers were safe, and most importantly, Taemin was safe. 

________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________

A/N 

Wow, this chapter was really long, haha! I'm finally back to where I should be with updates, thank goodness. So sorry for all the delay :(

I know a lot of you are hoping for a happy chapter, I'm sorry that it wasn't this one, but don't worry, there's one coming up very soon, so hang in there! :D

Also, as a special thanks to everyone who's read and supported this fic so far, I've written an extra chapter of sorts. It's this chapter, but from Taemin's perspective instead of Jongin's. You can read it here. Hope you enjoy it!! <3

Thanks so much for reading!! <3

-H